L'elisir d'amore at the Anghiari Festival in Tuscany, Italy in collaboration with Southbank Sinfonia. Performances on 24th and 26th July 2008.

Anghiari is a gorgeous medieval hillside town in Tuscany, and every July the town holds a ten-day music festival under the artistic leadership of Simon Over. Simon is Artistic Director of Southbank Sinfonia, our resident orchestra, and the orchestra play for the concerts which take in a variety of locations in and around the town.
 
There is a great love of opera in Anghiari, and in 2006, British Youth Opera was invited to cast a production of La bohème for the Festival. The opportunity for singers to rehearse an Italian opera in an Italian town (in which little English is spoken), and then to perform to an Italian audience who respond to the text as they hear it rather than reading it on surtitles was invaluable. Spurred on by this success we have been invited to return in July this year with a production of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, which we will produce as well as cast.

This production, British Youth Opera’s first of L’elisir d’amore, will be conducted by Simon Over, directed by Stuart Barker and designed by Stuart Targett. There will be two open-air performances on Thursday 24th and Saturday 26th July. Twenty-three singers will benefit from this splendid training opportunity, starting with rehearsals in London and then spending 16 days rehearsing and performing in Italy.

We hope that our regular supporters will see this as a new and worthwhile project, for which we welcome any additional support. For more information about supporting this project please contact Judith Butler by email or by phone on 020 7815 6092.

Pre-season Concert, at St. John's Waterloo on Thursday 7th August 2008

Our biannual concerts have become increasingly popular and those of you who have been before will agree that they are an unmissible opportunity to preview and meet some of the talented performers who will be with us at the Peacock Theatre in September. This year our Vice-President and eminent Broadcaster Richard Baker has kindly agreed to present the evening and our two Directors, John Lloyd Davies and Martin Lloyd-Evans will outline their visions for the productions.

The concert is free but British Youth Opera accepts donations towards its costs. The number of people who will be able to attend is limited by the number of seats, therefore we cannot guarantee places. If you wish to reserve a seat please email our General Administrator Marcella Santese.

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